unit 1 western campus life n ou5[pqúrhy> · analysis of the differences between chinese campus...

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Unit 1

Western Campus Life

I. Unit Overview

The unit is to find the differences between Chinese campus life and western

campus life through showing the features about western campus life.

The stories of western campus life in movies have become one of the most

mainstream subjects in western movie industry. During nearly one century, with the

development of movie industry from the silent era to the present, the movies are

not only the simple depictions of the situation of western campus life, but also the

development, the boom and the expected future about western campus life. The

audiences all over the world start to accept this sort of movies, to be affected by

this sort of movies and even to shape the popular perceptions in their own colleges

and universities. These depictions of campus life have even altered the attitudes of

the students themselves, serving as both a mirror of and a model for behavior.

II. Key Points & Difficult Points

1.Key Points

Western campus life in English movies

Memorable quotes in Mean GirlsAnalyzing western campus life

2.Difficult Points

The features of western campus life

Analysis of western campus life in Mean GirlsAnalysis of the differences between Chinese campus and western campus life

东软电子出版社

2摇摇摇摇英语电影赏析

摇摇 3.Solutions

The open questions help the students to think among themselves and

discuss with classmates about the topic, and the teacher's explanation helps

them enlarge their knowledge and understand the methods of western

campus life. With Mean Girls as an example, the students learn to analyze

western campus life and find out the differences between Chinese campus

and western campus life. The students can achieve the goal of attaining

abilities through working out the exercises with the knowledge and skills

learned in the unit.


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Surviving the Western Campus Life

玉.Surviving the Western Campus Life

Cady Heron had never known what "high school" truly meant. She lived her first

15 years in the African jungle, home鄄schooled, living life with only her parents and

the animals of the wilderness, knowing only the rules of the animal kingdom.

(Watch the clip of Mean Girls)

域.Western Campus Life and Its Feature

The stories of western campus life in movies have

become one of the most mainstream subjects in the

industry. During the last century, the movie industry grew

from the silent era to the present. Movies are not only

simple depictions of situational western campus life, but

also the development, the boom and the expected future

of western campus life. Audiences all over the world are

starting to accept these sorts of movies, to be affected by

them and even using them to shape popular perceptions

of their own colleges and universities. These depictions of

campus life have even been altering the attitudes of the

students themselves, serving as both a mirror and a model for behavior.

a) Continuous improvement in study

Generally, whether one attends a western campus or a Chinese campus,

continuous study is always of prominent importance. Every student is eager to

enter a good junior and senior high school as well as a prestigious university.

Therefore, working hard is a necessary burden of all students.

Elle Woods, inLegally Blonde (2001), had it all. She was the president of her

sorority, a Hawaiian Tropic girl, Miss June in her campus calendar, and, above all, a

natural blonde. She dated the cutest fraternity boy and wanted nothing more than



to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III. But there is just one thing stopping Warner from

popping the question: Elle is too blonde. Growing up across the street from Aaron

Spelling might mean something in LA, but nothing to Warner ' s East鄄Coast blue

blood family. So, when Warner packed up for Harvard Law and reunited with an old

sweetheart from prep school, Elle rallied all her resources and got into Harvard,

determined to win him back. However, law school was very different from the

comforts of her poolside and the mall. Elle was forced to wage battle every day of

her life. She had to be strong for her guy, for herself and for all the blondes who

suffer endless stereotypes every day. At last, she found that the only way to

succeed in her dreams was to work hard and be the best that she could be. This

movie illustrated that studying hard and doing well is just as important to western

students as it is to students elsewhere.

b) Colorful activities in campus

Topics of western campus movies can range anywhere

from school admissions, freshman experience, academic

work, professor鄄student relations, student romance, fraternity

and sorority life, sports, political activism, to any other form

of extracurricular activities. On a western campus, all sorts of

colorful and highly regarded activities can make campus life

more meaningful. People from many different countries enjoy

watching these stereotypically Western college activities, such

as parties, competitions, salons and so on.

c) Personal consciousness about life

Into the Wild (2007) was a story based on a real鄄life novel. It was written and

directed by Sean Penn. After graduating from Emory University, top student and

athlete Christopher McCandless abandoned his possessions, gave his entire

$24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the

wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encountered a series of characters that

shape his life. This film is a wonderful glimpse into the life of a western student,

wise beyond his years, and the bonds that he created with people along his journey.

He was a victim, suffering from an excess of wealth and a shortage of love.

Christopher McCandless hid inside his mind and behind knowledge and philosophy,

while he built up his intellectual strength, as well as the physical, in order to

complete his trek, which ultimately led him to Alaska. This film really showed how

the personal consciousness is extremely significant for growth of western students.



芋.Mean Girls

a)Plot

摇摇 Her parents being zoologists1, Cady Heron has never known

what "high school" truly meant. She lived her first 15 years in the

African jungle2, home鄄schooled, living life with only her parents and

the animals of the wilderness3, knowing all of the rules of survival.

Raised in the African bush country by her zoologist parents, Cady

Heron thinks she knows all about the " survival of the fittest4".

However, when she moves out of Africa, she has to learn the rules of

high school, a jungle in itself. The law of the jungle takes on a whole

new meaning when the home鄄schooled 16鄄year鄄old enters public

high school for the first time and encounters5psychological warfare6

and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today. She instantly

makes friends with two sweet teenagers, Damian and Janis. Her new

friends warn her to stay away from the Plastics: the A鄄list, popular,

crude7, and beautiful clique8headed by Regina George with Gretchen

and Karen.

Trying to find her place between jocks9, mathletes10, and other

subcultures11, Cady crosses paths with the meanest12 species of all 鄄the Queen Bee, aka13 the cool and calculating Regina George, leader

of the school's most fashionable clique14, the Plastics.

However, events turn for the worse when Cady falls for

Regina's ex鄄boyfriend, Aaron Samuels. When Cady sees Aaron

Samuels, she falls in love. When Regina finds out, she seeks

revenge15of Cady by taking Aaron back. When Cady finds out, what

began as a game to discover secrets turns into a plan to destroy

Regina. Now, Cady, Janis, and Damian plot16 together to bring

Regina' s status down. Cady gets revenge on her, by feeding her

Kalteen bars, which make you put on weight, giving her foot cream

for her face, and using the classic three鄄way calling method that

plenty of girls these day use. However, as Cady spends more time

with the Plastics, she, too, begins to become one.

Cady becomes a Plastic for real, and Regina gets revenge by

writing about herself in the ' Burn Book ' , copying all of the

entries, throwing them around the school, then blaming the

whole thing on Cady. Everyones hates her.

1.动物学家

2.丛林

3.荒地

4.适者生存

5.遭遇

6.心理战

7.预感

8.小圈子

9.受欢迎的人

10.奥数竞赛者

11.亚文化群

12.最卑鄙的

13.又叫做

14.小圈子

15.报复,报仇

16.密谋



摇摇 Cady is away with the Mathletes at a competition. When she

gets to the dance, her name is called as Queen. She apologises17

for being so cruel to everyone in the 'Burn Book', even though it

wasn't her, and breaks up her crown18, tossing19 bits of it to the

crowd. We then flash forward a year, we see how they got on,

with Cady turning into a normal person again

17.抱歉

18.王冠

19.丢

b)Cast

Lindsay Lohan摇摇 …摇摇 Cady Heron

Rachel McAdams … Regina George

Lacey Chabert … Gretchen Weiners

Amanda Seyfried … Karen Smith

Tina Fey … Ms. Sharon Norbury

Tim Meadows … Principal Ron Duvall

Daniel Franzese … Damien

Amy Poehler … Mrs. George

Ana Gasteyer … Betsy Heron

Neil Flynn … Chip Heron

Rajiv Surendra … Kevin Gnapoor

Diego Klattenhoff … Shane Oman

c)Analysis

Mean Girls was a 2004 American and

Canadian teen comedy film. The screenplay was

based, in part, on the non鄄fiction book called

"Queen Bees and Wannabes " by Rosalind

Wiseman. This book described how female high

school social cliques operate, and the effect they

could have on other girls. The film starred

Lindsay Lohan and featured a supporting cast of

Rachel McAdams, Amanda Seyfried, Lacey Chabert, and Lizzy Caplan. The film also

featured several Saturday Night Live cast members, including Tina Fey, Tim

Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, and Amy Poehler.

The film was well received by critics and was a big financial success as well,

grossing $129,042,871 worldwide. Mean Girls has been praised as Lohan's break鄄out film. "Mean Girls" brought back the cliche' teen flick theme with a vengeance.

What could have been a tired retelling of Heathers is actually a clever and witty

flick. Lohan brought depth to her role that made the film stand out.

The film was very funny and it hit pretty hard with its depictions of the various



cliques in modern high schools. Some would argue that the characters in this film

are too stereotypical,and could not be related to most real life high schoolers.

Mean Girls was a horri鄄fyingly realistic satire of

high school life. The cliques,

the way girls fought (and

what they fought over) is

perfectly portrayed. It was

delightfully nasty; whereas

most films shy away from

becoming too mean, Mean

Girls does not. The girls did

just about everything best

friends wouldn't do to each other (sabotaging each other's bodies, boyfriends, parties

and even clothes!). It was the truthful nature of the film that made it both deliriously

funny and scary as well. Anyway, the ending is superficially happy and gives us a sim鄄ply amazing dinstraction. It is possible that this movie might also give us a totally

new idea of western campus life.

d)Memorable Quotes

Clip 1

REGINA GEORGE: She thinks she's gonna have a party and not invite me? Who

does she think she is?

SHANEOMAN: You're right, hon.

REGINA GEORGE: I like 'invented'her, you know what I mean?

Clip 2

CADY: Oh, god.

JANIS: You dirty little liar !

CADY: I'm sorry, I can explain.

JANIS: Explain how you forgot to invite us to your party?

DAMIAN: Janis, I cannot stop this car. I have a curfew.

CADY: You know I couldn't invite you. I had to pretend to be plastic.

JANIS: Hey, buddy, you're not pretending anymore. You're plastic. Cold, shiny,

hard plastic.

DAMIAN: Curfew, 1:00 AM, it is now 1:10.

JANIS: Did you have an awesome time? Did you drink awesome shooters,

listen to awesome music, and then just sit around and soak up each others

awesomeness ?



CADY: You know what? You're the one who made me like this so you could use

me for your 8th grade revenge!

JANIS: God! See, at least me and Regina George know we're mean ! You try to

act so innocent like, "Oh, I use to live in Africa with all the little birdies, and the little

monkeys!"

CADY: You know what! It ' s not my fault you ' re like, in love with me, or

something!

JANIS: What?

DAMIAN: Oh, no, she did not!

JANIS: See? That's the thing with you plastics. You think everybody is in love

with you when actually, everybody HATES you! Like, Aaron Samuels, for example,

he broke up with Regina and guess what? He still doesn' t want you! So why are

you still messing with Regina , Cady? I'll tell you why, because you are a mean girl!

You're a bitch! Here. You can have this. It won a prize.

DAMIAN: And I want my pink shirt back! I want my pink shirt back!

Clip 3

JANIS: Okay, yeah. I ' ve got an apology. So, I have this friend who is a new

student this year. And I convinced her that it would be fun to mess up Regina

George's life. So I had her pretend to be friends with Regina, and then she would

come to my house after and we would just laugh about all the dumb stuff Regina

said. And we gave these candy bar things that would make her gain weight, and

then we turned her best friends against her. And then... Oh yeah, Cady 鄄 you know

my friend Cady? She made out with her boyfriend , and we convinced him to break

up with her. Oh, God, and we gave her foot cream instead of face wash.

Clip 4

CADY: Calling somebody else fat won't make you any skinnier. Calling someone

stupid doesn' t make you any smarter. And ruining Regina George' s life definitely

didn't make me any happier. All you can do in life is try to solve the problem in front

of you.

郁.Emerging into Western Campus

a)Participate in the activities of campus life

Watch the movies related to the western campus life and find out how to

participate in the following activities.



parties examinations

knowledge competiton student romance

salons sports

academic work part鄄time job

b)Research on the campus life topics

Look through essays and online resources and work out the following topics

with your group members.

1.What are the differences between Chinese campus and western campus?

2.In your own opinion, what kind of campus life is a perfect campus life?

c)Case Study

Choose and watch one of the movies in the part of References, discuss it with

your classmates, and find out the features of western campus life represented in it.


10摇摇摇英语电影赏析

References

a)HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL(2006)

Storyline

Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez are two totally

different teenagers who meet at a party while singing

karaoke on New Year ' s Eve. One week later Troy goes

back to his high school, East High, in New Mexico to find

that Gabriella is a new student there. They quickly become

close friends and accidentally audition for the school

musical. After getting a callback, drama queen, Sharpay

Evans and her sidekick brother, Ryan are furious. Then

Chad, Troy ' s best friend and basketball teammate, and

Taylor, Gabriella's new friend on the decathlon team must

find out a way to make Gabriella hate Troy. After seeing

that Troy and Gabriella sad about not talking, they soon support their choices and

let them "break free".

Cast

TroyBolton Zac Efron Gabriella Montez Vanessa Hudgens

Sharpay Evans Ashley Tisdale Ryan Evans Lucas Grabeel

Chad Danforth Corbin Bleu Taylor McKessie Monique Coleman

Kelsi Nielsen Olesya Rulin Zeke Baylor Chris Warren Jr.


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b)BRING IT ON :ALL OR NOTHING(2006)

Storyline

Britney Allen is living the dream—the cheerleader ' s

dream. At the elite seaside campus of Pacific Vista High

School, Britney is captain of the cheerleading squad and

the envy of everyone at school—including one overly鄄am鄄bitious teammate. When Britney hears about a forthcom鄄ing audition for a top cheer squad to appear in recording

star Rihanna ' s upcoming television special, she is deter鄄mined that her Pirates cheer squad will capture the cove鄄ted spot. But Britney's life turns from cheer鄄topia to cheer鄄tastrophe when her father' s job takes her family to Cren鄄shaw Heights, a multi鄄ethnic working鄄class neighborhood

east of Los Angeles. At her new school, Britney is viewed with suspicion by most of

the students, especially by Camille, the overly confident and acerbic leader of the

Crenshaw Heights Warriors cheerleading squad. No one is more surprised than Ca鄄mille, however, when Britney proves herself and secures a spot on the

Warriors'cheer squad...

Cast

Britney Allen Hayden Panettiere Camille Solange Knowles

Jesse Gus Carr Winnie Marcy Rylan

Amber Cindy Chiu Kirresha Giovonnie Samuels

c)Accepted (2006)

Storyline

Bartleby (B.) Gaines is a fun loving slacker who, unfortunately, gets turned

down for every college he applied for, much to the chagrin of his overly expectant

parents. So, with a little cutting and pasting, he creates the SouthHarmon Institute

of Technology, and lo and behold, he is accepted (along with his friends Rory,

Hands, and Glen, whose college plans were also all but dashed). However, his


12摇摇摇英语电影赏析

parents want to see the website, the campus, and the

dean. So now he has his other friend Sherman (who has

been accepted to the prestigious Harmon College) build

a web page, they lease out an abandoned psychiatric

hospital, and they hire Sherman' s uncle Ben to be the

dean. Problem solved? Not quite. The web page was

done so well, that hundreds of students show up at the

front door, all of which were turned down by other

colleges. Faced with no choice, Bartleby decides to

proceed with turning South Harmon into a real college.

Cast

Bartleby Gaines Justin Long Sherman Schrader Jonah Hill

Glen Adam HerschmanDaryl 'Hands'

HollowayColumbus Short

Rory Thayer Maria Thayer Monica Moreland Blake Lively

d)Step Up (2006)

Storyline

In Baltimore, the troublemaker and street dancer

Tyler Gage lives with his foster parents in an Afro鄄American lower class neighborhood. His best friends are

Mac Carter and his little brother Skinny Carter and they

used to hang around together, going to parties and

stealing cars. After being expelled of a party, the trio

breaks in the Maryland School of Arts and commits

vandalism, destroying the stage. Tyler is arrested and

sentenced to 200 hours of community service in the

school and Director Gordon assigns him to help the janitor cleaning the place. One

afternoon, the ballet dancer Nora Clark sees Tyler dancing in the parking area and

when her partner Andrew has a strain and Tyler offers to help her in the


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choreography, she accepts the offer; they rehearsal and become close to each other

while Tyler becomes friend of the students Miles Darby and Lucy Avila. When

Andrew returns, Tyler that is known for quitting everything he starts gives up

dancing and leaves Nora alone...

Cast

Tyler Gage Channing Tatum Nora Clark Jenna Dewan

Mac Carter Damaine Radcliff Skinny Carter De'shawnWashington

Miles Darby Mario Lucy Avila Drew Sidora


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